


Exchange

by SegaBarrett



Category: Better Call Saul (TV)
Genre: Gen, Kidnapping, Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 20:11:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7984639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kim has to dip into Jimmy's contacts when he goes missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exchange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SidleyParkHermit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SidleyParkHermit/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don't own Better Call Saul, and I make no money from this.
> 
> A/N: Thank you to my beta, Chaosprincess! :)

Kim Wexler realized that there was a crater in the corner of her face that she had never noticed before.

Well, to call it a “crater” was quite a hyperbole. It was a tiny indentation, and it seemed as if had always been there, but she had never taken the time to find it. After all, looking for your own flaws was a pointless task – there were enough people out there in the world who would point them out for you. 

But there it was. A tiny little – hole? Impression? Back to crater, maybe, again, like she was the moon or something. Staring her right in the face before one of the most important days of her life. 

She shook her head and brushed her hair. She’d worry about that later. The little voice in her head was always doing that, it seemed, telling her to step back when she was trying to get something done, as if she was moving too far forward for the rest of her and something inside her always just needed a break.

Today was going to be the first day of Wexler/McGill, and it could very well be a huge disaster – she accepted that much. She’d put her trust into Jimmy again, something that had proven it could be a mistake. But… there she was, all over again.

Speaking of which, where was Jimmy McGill, anyway?

A quick search of her apartment was finding no trace of him, and he wasn’t usually the type to slink off during the night. Unless, of course, he’d come up with a grand scheme that couldn’t wait until morning.

If that was true, then it was a bad sign.

She could only hope that Jimmy was planning to come in today, scheme-less and with his best foot forward. Sure, they had agreed to each do this their own way, but if Jimmy crashed and burned…

She didn’t want to think about what that meant.

***

Jimmy wasn’t in the office, either. Kim went through the morning’s appointments – nothing to write home about in any of them, but she went through them – and then decided to take a lunch, and by taking a lunch, she meant “track down Jimmy from wherever he has disappeared to”.

She would make a quip about trying to track down Waldo, but the only person she’d have to bounce it off of would be Jimmy. 

It was surprising how lonely it always felt when he wasn’t here. She could remember the time he had run off to Chicago – well, Cicero, he’d said – and it had felt sometimes as if the light had gone out of the days. She’d woken up without that little spark in her eye.

It had been kind of stupid, honestly – she wasn’t one to moon over men and act as if they were something special, some light in the night sky. She wasn’t a Disney Princess looking for a prince.

But Jimmy did make the days go by faster, and there was something a little magical in that. 

That wasn’t important right now, and Kim also needed to stop filling in the blanks of Jimmy’s disappearance with footage from every classic horror movie she had seen in her childhood.

Least of all, Slumber Party Massacre, which really had no bearing on the situation if she thought about it objectively.

Where was he, though? Maybe he had taken off to Chicago again – and hadn’t he mentioned an ex-wife? Maybe there was a situation there. It wasn’t as if he owed her any kind of an accounting for what he did every second of the day. That was why they were office-mates, not partners. She didn’t want to know what he did. 

She would give him a day to do whatever crazy thing he was up to. When he came to his senses, she would be there. 

Waiting.

***

She waited three days before she went from concerned to straight-out panicked. She managed to talk Mrs. Nguyen, the proprietress of the attached nail salon, to let her into Jimmy’s office/apartment.

There had to be something to show where he had gone. People didn’t vanish off the face of the Earth, not really. And middle-aged white men didn’t usually rank that high in abductions. It was always women or kids – those were the ones who heard the horror stories. No one said “Be careful, once a fifty-year-old accountant walked out of his house and he was never seen again.”

That was logical. He must have disappeared of his own accord. That was the kind of thing Jimmy was wont to do. 

Then why was she so worried?

The first thing Kim learned about this place was that Jimmy was in desperate need of either an affordable maid or a class in how to clean up after himself. She found not one but five empty Mountain Dew bottles on his desk, as well as a variety of candy wrappers scattered in the drawers and on the floor.

In the drawer she also found a phone number.

A client’s number, maybe? But then why wasn’t there a name written next to it – why was it tossed in here with a clear attempt to keep it secret… maybe even from Jimmy himself?

Out of sight, out of mind – he tended to go that way when he got wrapped up in a con he couldn’t quite get out of. 

It probably didn’t even have a connection. But right now, it was all Kim had.

***

Back at the office, she was confronted with the weirdness of it all over again – a dentist’s office. The kind of place she had put off going as a young adult (how long ago had that been, again?), the place she had fought against going as a child.

It didn’t seem nearly as intimidating without all the drills.

Kim scooped up the phone and held it against her ear for a moment. Maybe she shouldn’t even be calling this guy (or woman, or whoever the number belonged to) from her office phone at all. 

She hung the phone back up and silently cursed Jimmy.

***

She didn’t expect anyone to pick up when she dialed the number. If this was someone shady – and all signs currently pointed to yes – they were probably one of those people who continually changed their phone numbers. Maybe this wasn’t even a number to a phone at all, but to a pager.

Damn, Kim thought, pagers. The world’s most useless invention for anyone other than drug dealers and high school kids who thought they were too cool for school, with some variable overlap.

To her surprise, she heard a ring.

Okay, then. It would turn out to be someone else’s number. Some old lady who was tired of getting obscene phone calls, or some father who would be pissed off about people calling his impossible son.

“Who’s this?”

They hadn’t said hello. Maybe that was a good sign in this situation.

“My name is Kim Wexler. I’m a lawyer.”

Maybe that was a good a place as any to start – make it clear that she wasn’t law enforcement. Otherwise, whoever this guy was would hang up, and there went her lead, potentially forever. 

“Okay. Why are you calling me?”

“Do you know someone named Jimmy McGill?”

The voice on the other end let out a crisp laugh.

“You’re looking for that ol’ dog, too?”

“So you do know Jimmy McGill. I’m going to need to talk to you.”

“…You called me, lady. I don’t know what you’re even talking about.”

“He’s missing. Just help me out. You never know when you could use a lawyer.”

It had just come out – it was such a Jimmy way of doing things, and she hated it already. Offering up her services to someone she knew nothing about? Not to mention, it had come out considerably dirtier than she had intended. All she needed was to start sounding like a low-rent phone sex worker. 

“Maybe I’m just curious to see why so many lawyers are getting mixed up with me, these days. I feel more popular than I’m used to.” There was a pause, a sigh into the other end of the phone. “Meet me in front of the chicken place on 5th. If I see any cops around, you won’t get any answers and I’ll just ghost. Got it?”

“Got it.”

The next thing Kim heard was a dial tone in her ear. 

This was a stupid idea, one of the stupidest ideas she had ever followed. But she had to do it – she couldn’t necessarily say that she owed Jimmy that, but she wanted to do it.

She wanted him back, safe and sound. And boy, would he owe her. He would owe her this time.

***

Kim stuck her hands in the pockets of the hooded sweatshirt she had pulled on. All she needed was someone who knew her recognizing her, though hanging out in front of Los Pollos Hermanos, even one in a troubled area, wasn’t necessarily damning by itself.

Then again, better safe than sorry.

A man walked up a moment later, and Kim found herself slightly surprised. He didn’t look like what she was picturing – then again, she wasn’t sure what she had been picturing. The type of people she’d been defending had all looked like Betsy and Craig Kettleman, more or less. He looked slimmer, smaller, than she’d thought a shady guy who answered pay phone calls would be. He, too, was dressed in a hooded sweatshirt. It was a regular hoodie conference.

“You the lawyer?” he asked. 

“I am. Got some news for me?”

The man looked around, sniffing for cops.

“Your boy Jimmy got into trouble with a guy named Tuco. He talked his way out of it before but, whoo, he’s back at it again. He’s looking for somebody and he figures your boy knows where he is.”

“Oh… and who’s that?”

“Old white guy. Used to work outside of the county court in a parking booth, so that’s how they rooted around and found him. So far, he hasn’t said anything.”

“Okay, well, ‘old white guy’ just about narrowed it down to everyone who isn’t me or you. Speaking of, do you have, you know, a name? Or do you go by Deep Throat?”

“My name is Nacho. What’d you say yours was? Kimberly?”

Kim gritted her teeth.

“You know, Kim is just fine. Info to hang on to – no one likes being called Kimberly. Ever. Just like I’m going out on a limb that Nacho isn’t on your birth certificate.”

He shrugged. 

“Fair enough.”

“So, how do we get Jimmy back? Because you need to help me – it sounds like you know why he’s in this mess in the first place.”

Nacho chuckled.

“This all started long before I got involved, lady. Don’t try to pull me into this.”

Kim flexed her leg. What could she really do – tell this it was his moral duty to help her save Jimmy? Threaten to talk to the cops about him? Pick up a really big law book and fling it at his head? Her options were limited. Maybe she should just leave and tell the cops what she knew now, anyway. Someone named “Tuco” shouldn’t be too hard to track down. But it might not be in time… There was always that. She couldn’t stop herself from conjuring up a mental image of Jimmy hanging in chains above a woodchipper like in The Exterminator.

“Where is he?”

“…What are you even talking about?”

“I want to know where Jimmy is. Whatever this Tuco wants… well, I’ll find a way to make it happen.” Would she really give him some other person’s location, who he presumably wanted to kill? No, of course not – but she would figure something out to do. She just didn’t know what yet. What she and Jimmy both needed now was time – and Jimmy would need a swift kick in the head once this was over and done with.

“I’ll tell you – but it’s not my ass on the line when you get yourself killed, Lady Lawyer.”

Kim rolled her eyes.

“Is that the updated version of Guinevere or something? Just tell me where he is. I’ll do the rest.”

***

Kim stared at her closet for a long time, considering what to wear to a hostage negotiation. 

This was an issue, she mused, that most people didn’t tend to have.

She wondered if she should call Chuck. Maybe he would know how to get Jimmy out of it. But maybe Chuck wouldn’t even come, and if he did, he would never let Jimmy live it down. She just couldn’t do it.

Eventually, she pulled on a T-shirt and jeans. Showing up to this looking official would call undo attention to herself, not to mention slow her down if she had to make a break for it. In horror movies, far too many people decided to take on monsters or serial killers wearing heels. It just wasn’t a feasible solution.

Kim locked up her apartment. Hopefully, no new clients would need her today. Talk about a mental health day.

***

“You need to not say anything. Just let me do the talking.”

Kim rubbed at her eye and let out a sigh.

“If I’m letting you do the talking, then why am I here? Why didn’t you just get him out and I could pay you for a job well done?”

“A pretty face helps move things along.”

Kim scowled. Apparently feminism hadn’t broken into the sketchy drug trade, except for a few telenovelas here and there. 

But she would keep her mouth shut. For now. She could start screaming her head off once they were both home free. 

Nacho (his name was making her hungry, what a stupid association, back in law school sitting cross-legged on the floor across from her roommates and heating up chili cheese nachos in the microwave) led the way up to the boarded-up door of what looked like it had once been some kind of one-room schoolhouse.

Nacho pulled up the board and pushed in the door.

Now, as she walked through, it looked more like an abandoned warehouse than a schoolhouse.

There were burnt-out shelves everywhere. What a place to have a hide-out, if this was indeed this “Tuco’s” hide-out. Did crime lords even have hide-outs anymore, or was that something she had gleaned from old crime movies?

“So where is he?” Kim kept her voice low, trying to listen for Tuco – or whoever his goons were – coming towards them. But the silence was too much, she needed to break it somehow.

Place had nice acoustics.

“He’ll be there. We’re almost there. Had to switch spots. Too much going on at the old place.”

Well, Kim mused, at least she didn’t hear Jimmy screaming. That was most likely a good sign – most likely.

What was her plan again? 

Oh, yeah, be the best lawyer in the room.

It felt as if they walked forever, before they came to a small room that looked, if anything, more burnt-out than the rooms they had walked through before.

Not burnt out was the bright red recliner situated in the middle of the room, stretched out to its full length with a broad-shoulder man laying back in it. 

Behind him was a cuffed Jimmy, eyes wide as Kim entered. He opened his mouth to speak, and Kim proceeded to shoot him a glare.

She was going to do it, and dear God if he screwed it up both for them now, she’d get him for it.

“Good!” the man on the recliner exclaimed. “Nacho! You’ve brought me some entertainment! No-Doze, don’t she look good?”

“She looks good, Tuco.”

Kim had to stop herself from rolling her eyes again. Back when she’d been a gawky teenager, she hadn’t pictured this type of, shall she say, adoration. 

“What are you here for, lady? Are you planning to stay awhile? Did you find out that this is the best place to party?”

Tuco jumped up from the recliner into a standing motion faster than a cat jumping on a television.

“I’m here for him.” Kim gestured in Jimmy’s direction, ignoring both Jimmy’s wider-eyed stare and Nacho’s glare that clearly reminded her that he had told her not to speak.

“Oh? What will you do for him?”

Kim ignored the probable connotations.

“That depends. What did you want him for in the first place? Hopefully we can make a deal.”

“You? Want to make a deal with me?” Tuco began laughing hysterically. “You look like you just went to your junior prom!”

“…While I appreciate the compliment on my youthful appearance, I don’t have all day Mister…”

“Salamanca,” Nacho supplied under his breath.

“Salamanca,” Kim said. “I feel like what you probably want is money. And… I’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”

Well, I can add it to the student loans I’m never getting paid back, she told herself.

Not that she had any actual money. But if she talked quickly enough, she could convince both of them that she had it. Maybe.

“We got plenty of money! What I don’t have is that old man! I wanna fuck him up!”

“….Okay,” Kim said with a pause. “I’m going to need something more specific than that you’re looking for some old man. That doesn’t really narrow it down.”

“Old white man. Got me arrested. Out on bail. Changed his story like I wanted him too but I can’t deal with an insult.”

“Kim, please get out of here, I can handle this,” Jimmy piped up.

“Shut up, Jimmy.”

“Ooh! You’re whipped, boy,” Tuco exclaimed. “Okay, okay, maybe I like her. So, you gonna find us this old man?”

“Well… Why do you want to find him? Wouldn’t it be better, if you got him arrested, to just pay him off or leave him alone?”

“My uncle already paid him off.”

“Then it’ll look pretty suspicious if he vanishes now, wouldn’t it?” Kim blurted. “I mean, if this guy is an older guy, people might be out looking for him. You know, his kids and his wife. Then, if he vanishes – if you did something to him, especially after he testified against you, then the cops are right back at your door and you’re looking at even more time than you are now. And now it turns into an episode of ‘Oz’.”

Tuco craned his neck. 

“Oz? Wizard of…?”

“No, the gritty prison drama on HBO.”

Tuco laughed hysterically.

“This girl’s a comedian! Where’d you get this one?” He poked Jimmy roughly in the side.

“Listen, I’d love to stay and chat,” Kim continued, “But maybe we should just call this all a misunderstanding and you can stop by if you need some legal help one of these days. I won’t hold it against you, you won’t hold it against me, and we can all go our separate ways. Also, if I go missing, I’ve got people who will come looking for me. And if you think I look pretty now, I’m going to look amazing on a Missing Persons newscast.”

“So you want him, what, based on your good will?”

“He can’t help you find whoever you’re looking for, anyway. At least not like that. Lawyers need resources, and we are resources too. He could be your resource. But you’d have to uncuff him first. Can’t do much for you like that.”

Kim wished she couldn’t hear the sound of her heart beating in her ears. She felt like she was on a plane.

She must have closed her eyes for a moment before she heard the sound of handcuffs unclicking.

“Well, lawyer, we’ll call you when we need you.”

Tuco gave her a look, rubbing his hands together.

“Both of you.”

As she walked out the door, she shot a glance at Nacho.

He looked afraid. And maybe she would be, too.

But not just yet.


End file.
